1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to web applications that provide an Application Program Interface (“API”) for external, untrusted developers and more particularly to systems and methods for implementation of a structured query language interface in a distributed database environment.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, Structured Query Language (“SQL”) is designed for querying data contained in a single relational database. Though widely understood and adopted, SQL is not designed for querying data contained in a distributed database, nor is it designed for providing access to this data to external developers. Instead, alternative Application Program Interfaces are used by external developers to access this data.
Alternative Application Program Interfaces suffer from several drawbacks. First, most alternative Application Program Interfaces are incapable of performing focused queries. Thus, bandwidth and computing resources are wasted in providing query responses that may contain large amounts of irrelevant data. Second, third-party developers employing alternative Application Program Interfaces typically need to reconfigure their respective programs for each new query routine. Accordingly, when a distributed database is expanded with one or more additional categories of data, third-party developers generally need to spend time reconfiguring their respective programs. Third, business logic rules imposed by an administrator and/or a user of a distributed database typically must be applied to data to be queried via an alternative Applied Program Interface before third-party developers may access the data. Thus, there is a need for systems and methods for implementation of a structured query language interface in a distributed database environment.